The late actor John Hurt previously portrayed Professor Broom in Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy: The Golden Army (2008). Professor Broom is the founder of the Bureau For Paranormal Research And Defense and is a father figure to Hellboy.

Director Neil Marshall (The Descent) will be working with a script by Andrew Cosby, Christopher Golden, and Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

Marshall recently was on Mick Garris’s Post Mortem podcast discussing how a R-rating will grant him more creative freedom.

“We’ve been granted permission to do it R-rated, which for me is just like taking the cuffs off. It’s like, okay, so now we can just make the movie we want to make. It’s not like I’m going to force it to R-rated, but if it happens to come out that way, just because of my own sensibilities, then fine. And nobody’s going to stop us. So, that’s the main thing. And I’m sure, obviously, the success of things like Deadpool and Logan have not hurt that cause. Bit, also, when you go back the original material, it is kind of bloody, so I’m going to embrace that.”

Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queenis expected to hit theaters sometime in 2018.